1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to separating oil from sand or shale and more particularly refers to recovering oil products from oil sands.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Oil shale is a fine-grained, usually dark-colored sedimentary rock containing complex organic matter which, on heating decomposes to yield oil. Oil sand, sometimes referred to as a bituminous sand, asphalt rock, or tar sand is a loose sand or sandstone impregnated with very viscous oil.
The oil supplies of the world stored in oil sands or in oil shale exceed the crude oil reserves of the Arabic countries by several times. The problem of recovering oil from oil sands or shale is essentially that of the high cost of transporting the oil sand and of separating the oil from the sand. In the article "Tar Sand and Shale as Oil Reserves" in the journal Handelsblatt of May 3/4, 1974, page 33, a process is described in which the oil is separated from the sand by means of hot water.